Bennett one of the top bargains in NFL

The Eagles' decision to trade a fifth-round pick plus receiver Marcus Johnson for defensive linemen Micheal Bennett this past offseason was viewed as a steal at the time.

Now, it is being called one of the best bargains in the NFL -- or at least his contract is.

ESPN recently ranked the best bargain contract on each team, and despite the fact the Eagles still have quarterback Carson Wentz on a rookie deal, Bennett was named the top bargain.

Why?

The top reason listed is that the Eagles, since they acquired Bennett in a trade, don't have to pay any of the defensive end's signing bonus. That money is still on the Seattle Seahawks' salary cap. By avoiding having the signing bonus on their books, the Eagles basically have Bennett on a three-year, $20 million deal with almost no guaranteed money. Bennett has just a $5.6 million cap hit in 2018. In 2019 his cap hit rises to just $7 million. If the Eagles wanted to, they could cut Bennett next offseason and save the full $7 million in salary cap space. That is also the case in 2020, meaning the Eagles essentially have Bennett under control the next two seasons on team options.

The decision to bring in Bennett was one of two major moves the Eagles made this past offseason to help compensate for the losses of defensive end Vinny Curry and defensive tackle Beau Allen. The first move was trading for Bennett. The second was signing defensive tackle Haloti Ngata.

So far defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz has been very happy with what the two new players have brought to the locker room and on the field.

"Chemistry, that's an important word with our D-Line because everybody is a part of that. It's the production of a group that means the most. Those guys are all unselfish players," Schwartz said. "They’ll all be used in their own sort of special way, but the whole key to what we do up front is keeping troops fresh and rotating guys through. Haloti did that a little bit in Detroit. Michael, I don't know that he's ever really done that in his career. But those guys have bought in well. That should be a strength of our team and we need to have good production, not just from those guys but from all our guys."

You can follow Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at [email protected]!